All I can say is, seeing it live, it was a high-energy show, the skaters were having the time of their life and so were my husband and I from our on-ice seats. The show got the best reception this past year in Philly than the past few years' shows got.
Color me biased as I said in my original post.......I know everybody has different tastes and SOI can't please everybody all the time. But I am always pleased, even in the years SOI has an "off" year, there is always something good about the show. This years was better than good.

I thought the SOI coverage was good. Seeing the show live then watching it on TV is different and somewhat disappointing, but at least they showed it! They really didn't need to show all 3 skates of Sarah one would have been enough. I was hoping they would have shown Yuka Sato's "Amazing Grace" and or Elena & Anton's "If I Could", oh and at least Kurt Browning. It seemed funny seeing him in the group numbers but not showing him skate. Anyway I was glad that they showed Steven Cousins "Come Back To Bed" Overall a good show and I think that Sarah was a charming host.

You know, I was in and out of the room while this was on (was taping it for later anyway), so I thought I missed Kurt's solo number! I know they're not going to televise the whole show (of course, they want to whet people's appetites so that they pay and go see the whole thing, LOL), but I wish they would even it out more and at least run one solo routine for each pair or single.

From what I saw, I thought Sarah did a good job. It can't be easy to make some of these bits look natural. But again, unless they're going to lengthen the time to accommodate stuff like that, just let the skating talk.

Kurt and Yuka are "sharing" the tour with Michael Weiss and Katia Gordeeva as "guests".....Kurt was in some of the group numbers in the show A&E aired, as was Yuka. In Philly, we had Weiss and Gordeeva as our guest stars.....I actually don't recall seeing Weiss in any of the group numbers, but Katia was.

Not to sound overly mean, but I think Sarah should spend more time skating and getting in shape rather than spending time hosting. As a previous poster stated, her skating was very laborious, and I found it difficult to watch. It seems hard to believe that SLC was barely two years ago.

As to Sarah - my husband knows nothing of skating, yet by the end of SOI he would easily recognize Sarah as the only chubby girl out there. He couldn't believe it when I told him that Katya was 14 years Sarah's senior! I had a lot of respect for Sarah's decision to quit skating to go to Yale; I also understand why she's back on the ice. However, I think it is disrespectful to the audience to come back in the shape she is in right now.

Loved all the group numbers -- they're what makes this ice show unique. The boxers were particularly charming. The pair numbers were outstanding: who knew that Anton could adapt to hip hop so well?

Sorry, when Sarah skated I went to my computer and worked. As has been mentioned, she's mildly unattractive with the extra weight, her programs were not the measure of others on the ice and her expressive capacity is not as compelling as it was previously. I also felt she seemed wooden as host. Gimme Kurt any day over Sarah.

However I am excited about seeing this show live in April, so I guess the broadcast had its intended effect.

I thought Sarah did an excellent job of hosting, she seems like a natural. I was sorry that they didn't show Yuka's Amazing Grace program, which gave me goosebumps and Elena & Anton's If I Could program. I'm not quite sure why they showed 2 of Jamie & David's programs, it seemed like they were almost back to back. I was wishing they would have shown some of the transition pieces, I thought they were great this year. In one transition, they were about 3 or 4 of them out with a small crystal ball trying to hypnotize the audience to buy SOI shirts, books and pictures. While they are doing this, Alexei is getting prepared at the other end of the rink, and the spokesperson said........please don't pay any attention to what's going on at the other end of the rink........it doesn't concern you...........you need to buy....etc. It was funny.

I thought Sarah was an inappropriate narrator for this show. For one thing, she is the newest and least experienced cast member, and from what I saw of her interactions on the ice with the others, the least show-savvy. She was also by far the worst skater in the show, and she was the headliner!

I don't understand how she could look at tapes of her performances and not be horribly embarrassed. And I'm not talking about her size--I'm sure she's aware she is not in the same shape as the other ladies--I'm talking about her skating skills, or rather her lack of them. She is the youngest one in the show, and the only one who's competed as an eligible within the past two years, yet she doesn't have even skills required at the Novice level.

Yes, I know SOI was willing to take her on knowing that she can't skate like the 2002 Sarah, but you would think she'd have some pride in her own skating reputation.